WI: Successful Operation Ten-Go

[joeferrito]

Ahh, the infamous Frisian Islands rear their ugly head. Been too long since I've seen that particular reference...

 

[Vexacus]

Ahh, the infamous Frisian Islands rear their ugly head. Been too long since I've seen that particular reference...

Frisian Islands

 

[nbcman]

I feel like this is a joke that i'm missing the background on.

You're not the only one

Do a search on 'Frisian islands' by user David Green. It is too painful to see again.

 

[jsb]

sorry if my joke was to cryptic,

This forum has a had a joke about invading Germany from the NW over the mudflats (it would be very hard, but looks on a undetailed map easy).

JSB

 

[joeferrito]

It's almost as good as the old "no backup plan" story.

 

[Ming777]

Speaking of back up plans....

There were multiple navy task forces that could have engaged the Yamato if necessary. The chances of Yamato making it to Okinawa are very, very slim.

 

[King Augeas]

You're not the only one

http://forum.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/showthread.php?t=205591

Here is the full horror. A cunning Allied plan to defeat Germany by turning the Frisian Islands into a vast muddy prison camp.

 

[Resurgam]

The alternate history challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have Operation Ten-go succeed and Yamato and Musashi survive the war.

That would be somewhat difficult, considering Musashi was sunk during Leyte Gulf in October 1944, and Ten-Go is in April 1945...

As others have said, keep them tied up in Japan. Perhaps after Midway, the IJN fears losing one of these symbolic ships, and forbids their use outside of national waters, much like Hitler did with Tirpitz after the loss of Bismarck. But much like Tirpitz, I see the US becoming obsessed with destroying or crippling Yamato or Musashi, out of fear of their being let loose on the middle of an invasion fleet or a concentration of aircraft carriers. Which means that the Japanese would probably launch them out of desperation, just like OTL, and they would suffer the same fate, just later perhaps.

Even if they survived the war, I highly doubt we'd see them as museum ships. Those two more than likely have a date with Bikini Atoll.

 

[kclcmdr]

If both IJN Battleships are grounded on Okinawa beaches to support the IJA units..

American B-29 Bomber Wings will fly over and drop armour piercing and incendiary bomb loads upon the stationary targets and badly cripple them so that they are now two monuments of wrecked naval units holding the remains of their fallen IJN sailors....

Then American Marines and Army Units and remnant IJA units will fight over the wrecked steel and after a week's fighting, USN Intel officers with their security units will come over the secured area and check for any documents or technology that they could gleam from the two destroyed IJN battleships.

 

[Vexacus]

http://forum.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/showthread.php?t=205591

Here is the full horror. A cunning Allied plan to defeat Germany by turning the Frisian Islands into a vast muddy prison camp.

OH. MY. GOD....... MY EYES, THEY BLEED

 

[Whitewings]

I wonder what a Yamato modernized in the 1980s as a battleship in active service would look like, as insanely unlikely as that possibility is....

Perhaps something like this? Yes, I know, but I just couldn't resist.

 

[Vexacus]

Perhaps something like this? Yes, I know, but I just couldn't resist.

 

[MattII]

American B-29 Bomber Wings will fly over and drop armour piercing and incendiary bomb loads upon the stationary targets and badly cripple them so that they are now two monuments of wrecked naval units holding the remains of their fallen IJN sailors....

There are 19 battleships in the Okinawa fleet, the B-29s won't be needed.

 

[Vexacus]

If Yamato stayed in Japanese waters and survived trhe war, what would be her fate?

 

[joeferrito]

Getting nuked at Bikini with the rest of the captured IJN, most likely.

 

[Ravenflight]

Perhaps something like this? Yes, I know, but I just couldn't resist.

I knew SOMEBODY would, and was only going to the end of the thread to see if somebody did

 

[sparky42]

David Green just had a mental image of Yamato and Musashi with giant wedge ploughs welded to their bows charging past the Frisian Islands, clearing channels through the mud of the Wadden Sea...

Yamato! THAT'S what we need to making invading via the Frisian Islands work. A cunning plan that cannot fail.

Guy's you're not putting enough thought into it.

There's a simply way of keeping them alive, the German and Italian navies fresh from destroying the Royal Navy, conquering the UK and having gutted the British Empire arrive in time for their invincible carriers to turn the tide. The USN realising they are engaging the dreaded Kriegsmarine scuttle the entire Pacific fleet in terror, thus saving the Japanese Navy...

ie: The logical conclusion of the "Scapa Flow Carrier Raid" thread, now with 110% uber(completely not Nazis) Nazis and their invincible navy (RN Lead paint drink sold separately)

If the Islands are going to be brought into it, that deserves an honorable mention

 

[Vexacus]

Getting nuked at Bikini with the rest of the captured IJN, most likely.

Why would they do that?

 

[MattII]

Operation Crossroads.

 

[NothingNow]

Why would they do that?

Because it's a good way to test the effects of the Bomb on actual warships at different ranges.

It's what happened to the Prinz Eugen and the Nagato, along with a number of obsolete US Battleships and carriers.

It's also cheaper than trying to scrap something as massive as the Yamato-class battleships.

Yukikaze was actually one of the few IJN surface vessels to survive the war that wasn't part of Operation Crossroads. But that was because she was owned by the ROC at the time. TBH, it's a shame that she got scrapped in the 70's. She should have been a museum ship.